“Remnants of war” from the Caucasus war: the choice of the self-destructive homeland of the Armenians | The last 24 hours | udn Global

2020/11/16 24 hour corner

▌ Caucasian War “Scrap of War”: Elegy of the Self-Destroying Homeland of Armenians

“Since you can’t keep your hometown … then you don’t have to leave anything.” The Nagorno-Karabakh war, which has been fighting for 30 years and six weeks of bloody battles, has been under active pressure from Russia. The result of the “defeat and surrender of Armenia” ended. Within 48 hours after the armistice agreement, thousands of Russian troops entered the Naka ceasefire zone and supervised the withdrawal of the remaining troops from Armenia on behalf of the “peacekeeping forces”. However, with the desperate withdrawal of the regular Armenian army, the Armenian residents of the Naka region, as well as the Naka Army of Independence, who were unsure of what to do after disarmament, also marched tens of thousands towards the Armenian mainland. , becoming “abandonment of their homes”. War refugees. Although the government of the Naga Republic, which has been embarrassed everywhere, has continued to ask “please everyone to stay”, the pain and outrage of the Naka refugees continues to emerge; some people just go quietly, and the other part The people are busy burning ancestral houses and fertile fields, and adopting final scorched earth tactics: “Even if our hometown is taken from us, we will never take advantage of the town of Azerbaijan! “

After accepting the ceasefire agreement, Armenia immediately withdrew its tired regular army from the Naka front line. Under the original agreement, Armenia is to withdraw from the Kalbajar district (Kalbajar, northwest to connect Armenia) on the 15th and withdraw from the east on the 20th Aghdam (heading east to connect with Azerbaijan), and finally to evacuate from the southwestern district of Lachin (Lachin, heading south to connect Armenia) on December 1: the end result, the area occupied by Naka controlled by the Armenians. There will only be one special passage area of ​​the “Lachin Corridor” controlled by the Russian armed forces, but it will essentially become an isolated “enclave” surrounded by heavy Azerbaijani troops.

However, actual evacuation and “return to land” operations have run into extremely complicated scheduling difficulties. Because within the scope of the peace agreement, is there no regulation on where the “Armenian civilians in Naka” should go? Although the three Allied countries have consistently emphasized that they will ensure the safety of civilians, they fear that Azerbaijani soldiers and civilians will retaliate after the transfer of government, or that if they do not evacuate with the regular Armenian army, the fear of “will be too late to escape in the future. ” Card people spread quickly.

Spurred by the desperation of the country, thousands of Naka Armenians packed up and left. As a result, the highway crossing leading to the mainland of Armenia was crammed with convoys of refugees day and night. The chaotic state of the military and civilian withdrawal eventually rendered the Armenian army shamefully unable to withdraw as many as the agreed time. Therefore, under the coordination of Russia, Azerbaijan reluctantly agreed to extend the period of the first wave of withdrawal from the Kelbajar district from the 15th to the 25th originally stipulated.

But is it possible that the Armenian forces who have won the grace of 10 days withdraw their troops to break the peace agreement and fight again? Speculations and similar emotions, although they are part of the nationalists’ claims of pain, are almost impossible to achieve in reality, this is because the strong Russian peacekeeping army has quickly completed the front-line deployment; the second is due to Armenia. Due to the defeat of the war and the search for peace, the country is caught in extremely serious national upheaval, even close to a coup. Third, after the main force in Armenia decided to surrender, the hard-fought morale immediately collapsed, not to mention the local “Arza” in Naka. His “Army of Independence” has also dispersed.

In the Naka War of 1994, the Armenians who won a great victory established the Naka region claiming to be independent but hardly recognized by other countries. At the same time, politically, economically and militarily, they all depend on the support and command of the Central Government of Armenia. “The Republic of Artach” – this independent government, following the defeat and withdrawal of Armenia in 2020, has also entered a strange state of subjugation.

“Surrender is the only solution. If the ceasefire agreement is not accepted, the Republic of Artakh will definitely be” completely conquered “by Azerbaijan.” President Arayik Harutyunyan, Chairman of Nakah, left the building empty. At the presidential palace, he sadly told the French daily Le Monde: “At the time of surrender, we have less than 200 soldiers left in the capital, Stepanakert … Unless everything is destroyed, we will carry it from the beginning. The Azerbaijani army cannot be held, but no one dares to explain it ”.

Although President Arutyunyan still insisted that “the Republic is not dead,” bureaucrats at all levels, or the Republican Army of Independence, which suffered heavy casualties, have mostly “dissolved in its place” following the news. of his surrender. The public service system no longer has the ability to function effectively. The Independent Army, which had fought valiantly against the enemy a few days ago, was also disarmed and fled in large numbers for fear of the lack of security in the future and the possibility of being liquidated by Azerbaijan.

“I would rather destroy my homeland than get trapped in my hometown and become a subjugated slave!” Farmland and burning houses can be seen everywhere along the retreat route of the regular Armenian army. Many Naka Armenians burned their homes in a fire and did not want their ancestral homes to be “controlled by the enemy”. Hence, from ordinary businesses, houses, farmlands, forests and even churches, there are “traces of scorched earth” destroyed by the residents themselves. “.

Sayad, a citizen of Stepanekert who decided to give up, said: This is the second time in your life that you have had a taste of the country’s ruined family. He was originally an Armenian from Syria and was born in the Syrian civil war. The ancient city of Aleppo, which was destroyed in the Middle Kingdom, was originally moved to Nakah to escape the disaster, but unexpectedly, war and occupation would find the door again.

Sayad said that although governments at all levels in Naqqa asked people to “never rush to leave and stay where it is safest”, after the sudden war and sudden surrender, “there is nothing left in the to trust. .. If you want to reunite with your family safely, you can only escape now! “